Squid Game's Lee Jung-jae Opens Up About Gi-hun's Season 2 Transformation and Why It Made 'My Heart Heavy' (Exclusive)

When it comes to Squid Game season 2, Lee Jung-jae wanted to do his character justice.

In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, the Emmy winner, 52, gives an inside look into how he prepared for the highly anticipated second season of the hit Netflix k-drama series.

Squid Game's first season followed Seong Gi-hun [Lee] as he sought to win the high-stakes competition filled with deadly versions of children's games. Out of 456 contestants that started in the competition, Gi-hun was the last contender left standing.

Related: Squid Game's Lee Jung-jae Says Season 2 Will Have 'More Surprises' Than the First: 'So Many Twists and Turns' (Exclusive)

After attempting to put the harrowing events of the games behind him and meet his daughter in America, Gi-hun rearranges his plans when he encounters a representative from the games at a train station. Instead, he decides to go after the Front Man and the people behind the games to put an end to them for good.

"Portraying Gi-hun in season one was a little more fun and enjoyable because he's got that positive and cheerful energy and it's less stressful to convey those characters," Lee tells PEOPLE of how his character evolved from the first installment. "And in season two, he was the other way around, and it actually made my heart quite heavy."

The actor says he had to battle internal questions of how to portray Gi-hun's trauma and new outlook on life.

Related: Squid Game Season 2 Teaser Trailer Sees Seong Gi-hun Looking for Revenge

"Should I go deeper or should I be a more sharper kind of character, or should I be just focused on the mission of putting an end to the game? It gave me a lot of stress," he admits. And Gi-hun appears as a very sensitive person this time around, so he could actually physically feel the aches. So it required a lot of effort."

Before filming season 2, Lee says he binged season 1 without stopping and paid attention to the little details that made up Gi-hun's character.

"There are facets of Gi-hun you see in season one, and I wanted to show that in season two as well," he explains. "But because he's such a changed person in season two, it wasn't easy for me to do that. So I pondered on how I can do that."

Related: Squid Game Season 2: All About the Highly-Anticipated Korean Thriller's Next Installment

One of the ways he was able to do that was in his scenes with Lee Seo-hwan, who reprises his season 1 role as Jung-bae, Gi-hun's longtime friend who refuses to lend him money for his gambling debts.

"When I share scenes with my friend Jung-bae, I can do that. I can be myself once again. So that's what I try to do," he continues. "So there are moments where you see the old season one Gi-hun, and there are more moments where you see the more serious season two Gi-hun. I thought that would make my character more three-dimensional."

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Squid Game season 2 premieres Dec. 26 on Netflix.

Read the original article on People